893.00/5–2049: Telegram
The Minister-Counselor of Embassy in China (Clark) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 21—6:43 a. m.]
Cantel 439. Han Li-wu, Minister Education and liberal, expressing determination resist comparable that of Churchill32 at time Battle of Britain, is still sanguine effective resistance Communist[s] possible and is taking action on his own toward that end. Faced with ineffective propaganda Minister Information, Han is using funds Minister Education [Page 339] in effort portray life under Communists. North China and educate people need to resist. This will be done in lectures [by] prominent escapees from North and through “Free China” publication.
In effort solve costly refugee student problem, Han plans send some to Taiwan for military training to serve as junior officers and prior next semester he plans hold strict examinations and eliminate all but most qualified students. Others will go through military training either as communications technicians, drivers, or other similar specialists. Fourteen hundred students have already been picked for Taiwan to be trained under Sun Li-jen who has officer at Canton making arrangements.
If there were more like Han Li-wu, there might be hope for non-Communist China, but am afraid he is the exception. He inquired as to possibility obtaining qualified Americans to teach in technical schools for army training and we hedged by suggesting that graduates of the Ramgahr School should be available in China for that purpose.
- Winston S. Churchill, British Prime Minister, 1940–1945.↩